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Omaha Parks System Ranks High on National Report

A new report by The Trust for Public Lands -- City Park Facts 2018 --- has some good news about Omaha’s parks.

Charlie McCabe, Director of City Parks Excellence for TPL, says for this report they examined the park systems in the country’s 100 largest cities. He praised the Omaha parks department, the public-private partnerships dedicated to Omaha parks, and especially Omaha’s trail network.

“It’s looked at as a great example of what municipalities can do to really kind of expand access to people on foot or on bike and linking neighborhoods with schools and linking different areas of the city with each other. You know, with trails we’ve tremendous growth over the last number of years, and Omaha’s kind of at the forefront of that. ...  It’s a very, very impressive program.”

Omaha received five top 10 rankings in this study -- 5th in both golf and tennis courts, 6th in pickleball courts, 7th in swimming pools and 8th in baseball diamonds.

McCabe says The Trust for Public Lands is working with other non-profits to increase the number of Americans living within a 10-minute walk of a public park—especially with the numerous reports that show Americans get too little exercise.   He says 78% of Omahans live within 10 minutes of a park -- compared to an average of 70% of residents for the 100 cities they studied.

McCabe says it is important for citizens who value public parks to not only enjoy them but to also support public and private funding for them.   

To see the entire report, the URL is: https://www.tpl.org/10minutewalk#sm.0000cqgwss8mff3j10wazixr7it74